Barracoon: The Story of the Last Slave

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Abducted from Africa, sold in America. "A deeply affecting record of an extraordinary life"- Daily Telegraph A major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker. The true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade. In August 1931, famed anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston travelled to Alabama to visit ninety-year-old Cudjo Lewis, a former slave. Over three months, Cudjo shared heart-rending memories of his childhood in Africa; the horrors of being captured - fifty years after slavery was outlawed - and held in the Ouidah barracoons for selection by American slavers; the harrowing ordeal of the Middle Passage aboard the Clotilda with over one hundred other souls; and the years he spent in slavery. Barracoon brings to life Cudjo's singular voice in an invaluable contribution to history and culture, a work as poignant as it is profound.

Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, was deemed "one of the greatest writers of our time" by Toni Morrison. With the publication of Lies and Other Tall Tales, The Skull Talks Back, and What's the Hurry, Fox? new generations will be introduced to Hurston's legacy. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama, in 1891, and died in 1960.

"That Zora Neale Hurston should find and befriend Cudjo Lewis, the last living man with firsthand memory of capture in Africa and captivity in Alabama, is nothing shy of a miracle. Barracoon is a testament to the enormous losses millions of men, women and children endured in both slavery and freedom-a story of urgent relevance to every American, everywhere." Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Life on Mars and Wade in the Water "Zora Neale Hurston's genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece." Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple "Barracoon is a powerful, breathtakingly beautiful, and at times, heart wrenching, account of one man's story, eloquently told in his own language. Zora Neale Hurston gives Kossola control of his narrative- a gift of freedom and humanity. It completely reinforces for me the fact that Zora Neale Hurston was both a cultural anthropologist and a truly gifted, and compassionate storyteller, who sat in the sometimes painful silence with Kossola and the depth and breadth of memory as a slave. Such is a narrative filled with emotions and histories bursting at the intricately woven seams." Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun "A searing reminder of how recently American slavery ended, and the depth of the pain it caused." The Economist "A deeply affecting record of an extraordinary life." Daily Telegraph "Barracoon and its long path to print is a testament to Zora's singular vision amid so many competing pressures that continue to put us at war with ourselves." Huffington Post Books of the Year - The Economist Best Books of 2018 - New York Public Library Best Books of 2018 - NPR Best Books of 2018 - SELF.com Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018 - TIME